It’s time to be green at Sacrewell

Staff at Sacrewell have been making a special effort to reduce their carbon footprint - and thought it was time to shout about it to mark Earth Day last week.

Over the last few months, staff and volunteers at the heritage farm centre near Wansford have made some important changes behind the scenes. It all boosts the key messages that Sacrewell is promoting by creating electricity through its hydroelectric waterwheel as part of the £1.8m Heritage Lottery Fund supported watermill project.

“Sacrewell was always ahead of the game when it came to innovative farming under the careful watch of William Scott Abbott, so we thought it was time we brought forward his legacy.”

At the beginning of April, Sacrewell entered into a new waste disposal contract with Peterborough based firm Viridor, which promises to reuse or recycle 99 per cent of the rubbish it collects.

The items that can’t be recycled they make into a resource, creating high-quality compost from food waste and electricity from rubbish that would normally go to landfill.

Sacrewell’s business support manager Anna Mackman has headed the project. She said: “When we met with Viridor, we were so impressed with their pro-active attitude towards transforming waste into recycled materials and renewable energy that we couldn’t wait to start working with them.”

Sacrewell is working hard to ensure the new approach is something their visitors can join in with too. Volunteer John Oliver is building new double bins, with space for recycling and for general waste. Office staff have also teamed up with Lyreco to supply recycled papers and bought a new energy efficient printer.

Sacrewell is also now working with VegWare to supply compostable bags and Origin8 at Sacrewell café have also stocked their compostable cutlery, plates and cups.

Even the animals are doing their bit. Their new food pots from VegWare are also compostable, meaning that they can be reused to grow the nutritious grass nuts they are filled with.